Having just finished watching the cricket match between India and Sri Lanka an interesting thought crossed my mind. "Why can't Indian Cricket produce fast bowlers?"
There are numerous theories on this topic doing the rounds. Theories ranging from physical built of the Indians, lack of red meat diet among Indian players etc. But what could be the real reason for this?Can't a country of over billion people can't produce a fast bowler who can clock regularly over 90 miles per hour?
The answer is YES we can produce fast bowlers provided we are allowed to remain one.
The old cricket saying goes 'fast bowlers hunt in pairs'. The most recent example to this is the dreaded W's of the Pakistan cricket team. The 2 Ws, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis terrorised batsmen all over the world. One with toe crusing yorkers and the other with the ability to swing the ball in both directions at fiery pace.Wasim Akram was hand picked by none other than the great Imran Khan. When Wasim Akram burst into the international scene, he had a very good mentor in Imran Khan. Imran Khan was more of a line and length bowler and Wasim Akram had the liberty to as bowl fast as possible to intimidate the batsmen. Similarly when Waqar Younis came up Pakistan had Wasim Akram who was more of a containing & wicket taking bowler. This allowed Waqar to express himself.
Take the history of any fast bowler you will find a similar situation. Be it Glene McGrath,Bret Lee,Walsh, Ambrose or a Shane Bond. Fast bowlers always had a good line and length bowler the other end. This helps the fast bowlers to bowl fast and not worry about bowling line and length to contain the flow of runs.Can we say the same about Indian cricket?
The answer is a big NO. Jawagal Srinath was very lucky to have a Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabakar. But the current Indian fast bowlers are not that lucky.Take example fo Munaf Patel. I remember he was considered to be the quickest in India clocking regularly over 90 miles. However now he is made to worry about line and length. The sole reason being, India does not have a bowler who can bowl on a tight leash. India does not have a bowler who can contain. The lack of a containing bowler does not help the fast bowler's cause. He starts to think that he should be a containing bowler rather than an attacking bowler. Vikram Raj Vir Singh is another example. And I am sure his career will take the same path as Munaf Patel.
This is not just a problem with the fast bowlers. Guys like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is a naturally attacking batsman is not allowed to express himself. This is because he is treated as a regular batsman in the team and is expecte to score runs every time he takes guard. This situation is not doing any good to Indian cricket.The Indian Captain Rahul Dravid, in his post match press conference says, that he takes full responsiblity for the current situation of Indian cricket. But is he the only person responsible for this mess? I guess the board will have to come up with a long term plan about improving the quality of the players rather than worrying about increasing the bank accounts.
Cheers
PG
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2 comments:
You can not really compare great fast bowlers. All of them were unique and had their special gifts. At his peak Imran was quite simply unplayable .
You should read Gavaskar´s ´´idols´´. Also listen to Gavaskar´s interview in which he was asked about the top paceman he faced in his time.
You should read books from abler authorities on hte matter. Simon Wilde´s Letting rip has an interesting chapter on Imran. There is an interesting article on the guardian on pakistan´s tour of west indies in 1988. Maybe that will give you a proper understanding of imran´s calibre as a paceman. He was up there with the best like Lillee, Holding, Roberts , Marshall to name a few.
Read what the batsmen of his era had to say about him. I would also recommend dennis lillee´s over and out. He has a few words to say about Imran in that book. Whenever viv wrote about fast bowling he singled out imran as one of the best he ever faced. Cricketing Skills, Viv the autobiography are two books that come to mind.
India can certainly produce fast men. It is just that in india batting is considered more glamourous. That is why every yyoung cricketer in india wants to eb a Gavaskar or a Tendulkar.
We all draw inspiration from our heroes. Pakistan had imran when India had that awesome line up of Vishwanath, Amarnath, gavaskar etc.
The indian media has been hi jacked by the sponsors. They rewrite the laws of the game at whim and advocate a style of play which would perpetuate batting as the apotheosis of the cricket. T20 was devised purely for commercial gains and is absolute torture for the purists. It needs to be brought home to indian youth that Bowling is not sub ordinate to batting. They need to be exposed to the history of fast bowling so that they can realise its match winning attributes.
Once inspired, young indian fast men will leave the past greats in the dust...this i say with due sincerity for i love the game and am a strong believer in the pace theory.
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